Bogus Editing Services

I do not post here much. However, I have been alerted to a scammer taking advantage of candidates at the dissertation level in their doctoral programs. He knows that candidates will often use professional editing services. This is common to all degree programs -- not just distance learning or B&M learning. Read any book and you see in the acknowledgement section a mention of the editor.

This fellow claims a PhD from Berkley, and experience editing academic writing. He is not being truthful, he is running a scam and taking money from folks that are vulnerable because of a need to get a service completed with quick turnaround.

Here is his information:

David Chang
Founder and Consultant
Four Hundred Group
3931 Alemany blvd, Suite 2002-278
San Francisco, CA 94132

(Site and emails removed by moderator)
The website is bogus.

You are warned to avoid this scammer.

 

Is his Ph.D from University of California - Berkley, or University of Berkley?

 

Actually I think the point is -- he has no advanced degree as he is a scammer. I made contact with him today by email. He is trying to find an easy way out.

Bottom, there is no easy way out, he should step up, make restitution, and then cut the scamming out.

 

Don't hold your breath. If he was that kind of guy he wouldn't be in that situation to begin with.

 

I have a friend (with a real Berkeley Ph.D.) who, for 30 years, has been in the business of editing doctoral dissertations. There is a continuum from light editing to writing the whole darn thing. My friend says it is often very challenging to draw the line at an ethically sound place. Suggest new wording for a sentence, but probably not write a paragraph, and definitely not a page or chapter. She is aware that there are well-credentialed people who draw their line in a place that she wouldn't.

This is not, of course, to suggest there is anything positive about what Chang does. Three weeks ago, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran a long investigative piece on page one, headlined "Cheating Goes Global as Essay Mills Multiply." (http://tinyurl.com/dg8nch) Brief excerpt:

"Everyone knows essay mills exist. What's surprising is how sophisticated and international they've become, not to mention profitable. In a previous era, you might have found an essay mill near a college bookstore, staffed by former students. Now you'll find them online, and the actual writing is likely to be done by someone in Manila or Mumbai. Just as many American companies are outsourcing their administrative tasks, many American students are perfectly willing to outsource their academic work. And if the exponential surge in the number of essay mills is any indication, the problem is only getting worse."

 

editing or not editing?

The point of this fellow is he does not perform any editing, he just tells you he can, and actually, he cannot. He is -- a scammer. In the basest sense of the word.

Con men of old ranged shoddy work for money, then disappear, to the tricksters that bamboozled a mark out of the money, and then disappeared.

This guy wants to be the latter ... he did no work.

 

It would seem to me that it would probably not be that difficult to look at different papers a student has written and tell if they're written by the same person; look for the same sort of misspellings or improper usages or syntactic errors, for example. It would be particularly interesting to have pop quizzes or in-class essays and then compare that writing with essays they've turned in. I suspect there's probably some software that already does this, though... to ensure that the student is actually writing his own work in class, you'd almost have to insist it be done in longhand rather than on a computer.

It definitely seems to me that this is a much, much more serious problem in 2009 than it was in, say, 1979. I don't know if it's easier availability, or a lack of ethics, or a combination of both, but it really doesn't bode well for the future of our country, and why more people don't seem to see that, I don't understand at all.

 

Base on logic and common sense, people only care about money and status, most individuals would not profit from doing the right thing or using common sense for that matter.

 

David Chang just scammed me!

I wish I saw this post before I gave this guy 200 dollars. His phone went straight to voice mail every time I called it after he received my money. My paper that was supposed to be returned to me 24 hours ago still has not even been sent. He is a liar and people like this can't be tolerated. He sends emails telling me that he is in the library or the paper is almost finished all day long.

Please if you will describe your story dealing with this guy in more detail?

Also this guys office the Four Hundred Group is also home to RP's NflPicks.com
Don't know what that could be about probably just another scam

 

If you paid via credit card, just call your card issuer and request a chargeback. He can't keep your money if no services were provided.

Likewise, Paypal will very easily reverse charges where there's no physical product that can be proven delivered (such as via a UPS notice of delivery), so if you paid that way, you should be able to get a refund.

If you paid with cash or check or western union or something, you're out of luck.

 

A scammer is at it again!

Unfortunately, Chang is a guy that knows his art. what he did to my friend is most likely what he did to you. He asks for the money to be directly deposited into his account. This is a cash transaction, and he probably drains the account as soon as any money is deposited.

My friend has made a complaint to the FTC, and the AG's office in California. There is little else you can do ... other than try to get the word out that he is a scammer, and hope others will learn from your pain.

I am trying to get the word into the places where DL types are prone to gather, like degreeinfo.com. If you have other spots where you can let his info be posted and alert the writers of thesis and dissertations know about David Chang ... please just go and do it.

Additionally, start emailing him constantly. I did so, and will now start again. He hates to get email.

 

There's always small claims. Even though it might not be worth the $ to spend a half day in court, you'd get your money back, and you could then post everywhere that you'd won a small claims action against him, which might help at least a little bit.

You could also potentially file a police report for theft by fraud.

 

Just wish I knew someone living in San Francisco, I would try to have a social visit arranged.

This guy is a scumbag.

 

UPDATE:

If you were scammed by David Chang here is a course of action. The local Sheriff's office will take no action unless a complaint is filed with the SF Police Department. They recommend also making a complaint to the FBI, as well. The bank has stated they will take no action unless there is a police report of the incident. It appears all should make their reports to the SFPD. Then the Sheriff and the Bank can start the ball rolling on Chang.

 

Attn: Those scammed by david chang

Hello! Sadly enough Im glad to find people who have been affected by DAVID CHANG THE FRAUD. I live in S.F. and am trying to do all I can to hold this shitbag accountable. He was suppose to write me a 10 page business plan but produced 1 pg. Im out 700.00 dollars. I will try and contact you to see if maybe we can pull resources together to either get information about his whereabouts or hire a private investigator to locate him. We cannot take him to small claims court until we can subpoena him. Filing a police report is useless since he did produce something only making it a violation of verbal contract...DA wont touch it for that reason.

 

Sorry about your misfortune

Chang is a bad seed, and putting him out of business ought to be the business of the DA there in SF, but they probably are telling you it is just a contract issue. I disagree, but so what?

Does he not live at the address he gives? That is different; except it is a dry cleaners, and I am sure he is not working that business -- it does actually require work -- actual work.

I know my friend is not a SF-ian, so I don't know if she is willing to get involved in a long distance matter with him. But, I will check.

 

And why were you buying a business plan instead of writing one for yourself?

 

I don't think pop-quizzes or in-class essays are a viable solution to the problem. The first drafts of my essays and research papers look nothing like my final drafts. You probably couldn't tell that the same person wrote it. The usage and spelling errors definitely won't be on my final draft unless I was in a hurry and overlooked it.

This is really no more rampant than it was 30 years ago. However, the software just makes it much easier to find. Imagine trying to catch it without the software. It would be damn near impossible.

 

That's an excellent point. My early drafts and final drafts are pretty different also, and I momentarily forgot completely about spell checkers, since I generally don't use them. (Barely existed when I was in college, and not at all in high school.)

I wonder how easily an AI-based plagiarism detection engine could be modified to work in reverse, i.e., "Look at these 3 papers and tell me if the same person wrote them"? I'm sure it could be done, by looking for unusual word patterns and other syntactic or pattern-based anomalies that stand out from the norm, but I wonder if anyone has done so?

And, for that matter, would the same author, writing in very different styles (say, fiction vs. technical writing) be detectable?

 

Responding to the comments

At the terminal degree level it is normal to use editing services to improve (think structure, grammar, syn-tax, all that stuff -- not content) the writing only. This is true for professional writers, I mean who has ever read a book written, both fiction and non-fiction, that does not have a commendation in the overleaf acknowledging the editing? I have seen it many times.

Also, many entrepreneures do reach out to professional writers to craft, or clean up their business plans. I am a consultant, and have 'helped' or 'just plain written' a lot of them. I use a specific format, interview the prospective entrepreneur, and write drafts, go over them with the entrepreneur, and re-write until satisfied and the deliverable is handed off. Not at all unusual.

Chang is like some sort of vermin that creeps in and eats your bread and then disappears claiming he is not guilty. He, and those like him, need to be exposed for the vermin they are, and made to repair the damage they do.